Primoz Roglic kept the yellow jersey on his shoulders after stage 3 of Itzulia Basque Country but it was not without it's challenges. The BORA - hansgrohe rider crashed hard and spectator footage reveals the violence of the incident.
The Slovenian hit the tarmac with 38 kilometers to go in a slight left-hand corner that didn't originally look too dangerous. The speed the peloton reached it however was too much and several riders swerved. Roglic appeared to have been the first or among the first to crash.
The video, shared by El Diario Vasco, shows the speed at which Roglic crashes, with several others then also hit the deck. The race leader stayed two minutes in the scene of the crash and was checked for a concussion.
However he was seemingly cleared and returned to the race, recovering his position in the peloton and maintaining his race lead. However, the effects of the crash will likely be felt the upcoming days and will prove an extra challenge.
I’m not so sure. Unfortunately we only see from the moment he’s down, however, I think we can deduce that he’s already down way to early (and also going way too fast) for it to have been from braking for the bend, at such speed it takes a few metres to go from vertical to horizontal. I’m more inclined to think there must have been contact with someone before the start of the turn and braking in which case it could be his fault, the others’ or both. You don’t fall in such a group all of your own accord and it’s obvious (from trajectory) that before starting to go down he must have been right in the middle of the bunch.
Also, if you look at his initial slide, he comes out the group head first in front of his bike, that is not the result of sliding into a curve but projection.